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Monday, September 21, 2009

Wii Fit does not equal "WE" Fit!

Shan borrowed a Wii Fit board from the Williams' so that we could see if we really want to buy one or not. Ironically, Shan did not get to try out the board over the weekend. Emily, Tyler and I finally hooked it up last night. It is such a wonderful piece of ... equipment.

The first thing one must do is calibrate the board/software with each person wanting to use it. So, the system weighs you, takes your height and birth date and figures up your BMI. For me, the system basically said, "Jiminy Cricket! Get the heck off me, you fat, old guy!" Well, maybe not quite in so many words.

The next phase was a test in balancing skills. The board got to the end of the test and said, "Do you find yourself tripping a lot?" That is NOT an exaggeration. It actually asked me that. How rude!

You have to pick a male or female trainer, read a bunch of hooey about diet, exercise and balance, and then you get to pick some "games" to play. The crux of the board is balance, though there are exercises you can do (some are locked until you earn the right to unlock them as you play the unlocked games) as well. I opted for the balance games: Soccer, Slalom Skiing, Ski Jump, and a couple others. I kicked butt on Ski Jump!! I've got great balance and timing. The other games? Well, I kicked butt at Ski Jump!

The soccer game features Mii's kicking balls, panda heads (presumably mascot uniform heads), cleats, etc at you. Your job? Block the balls without hitting any of the other things flying at you. All I can say is that I am VERY good at heading the cleats... Can't hit a ball to save my weight, but the cleats? Oh yeah, I'll take a spike to the head any day. Great.

Somewhere in the game, you can walk a tightrope, which basically means you walk in place as the computer guy on the screen moves forward. Sounds easy enough. Yeah, lean too far one way or the other and aaaaaaaahhhhhhh, your little character falls to his/her demise (though they don't actually show that part). I did manage to make it all the way across in easy mode! Wahoo!!

Tyler busted some moves on a stepping game and then tried his hand at Yoga. All I am going to say is that he has breathing down to an art...

What does the future hold for us Wii Fiters? Who knows. I can tell you that having a computer game tell you (and show you!) how fat and out of shape you are may just be the motivation needed to do something about it. I plan on kicking the thing's little butt.... If we get one... If we don't, well, then, I can live with that too.

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Popped in my Head is copyright David Henderson. Individual articles are copyrighted based on their publication date. All opinions expressed on this site are those solely of David Henderson and not his employer or associates.